


Erised

by torestoreamends



Category: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: M/M, Mirror of Erised, Post-Canon, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-20
Updated: 2016-09-20
Packaged: 2018-08-16 10:11:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8098147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torestoreamends/pseuds/torestoreamends
Summary: Albus and Scorpius stumble upon the Mirror of Erised and Albus convinces Scorpius they should look.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been listening to the Philosopher’s Stone audio-book and it’s just so fascinating thinking about my favourite characters’ desires. I also like thinking about how the boys can help each other deal with whatever they see in there.
> 
> Beta'd by brief_and_dreamy

They’re looking for a room where they can practice Cheering Charms for their O.W.L.s when they find it. The soaring golden arch of the frame, glinting in the light spilling through the classroom window, clawed lion’s feet planted on the ground with a firmness that makes it seem immovable and eternal, flawless surface reflecting a perfect image of the high, arching ceiling of the classroom. It’s angled just enough away from the door that Albus can’t see himself or Scorpius in it.  

Scorpius breaks off mid-sentence. He’d been talking incessantly about what he’d learned in Muggle Studies earlier, but now he’s just staring at the mirror with the strangest expression on his face. Somewhere between wonder and terror. He’s stopped walking too, right in the doorway.

For a moment he looks at the mirror, then he swallows and turns away. “We can’t practice here. We should find somewhere else.”

Albus laughs and takes a step forward into the room. “What’s wrong with it? We’ll just have to be careful not to smash the mirror. Come on, Scorpius. All the other rooms are full.”

Scorpius shakes his head and backs a step away. “Albus, no. Don’t go near that mirror. It- It’s not a normal mirror.”

Albus turns and looks at it. “Looks normal to me. I can see the room in it. It isn’t doing anything weird to the reflection…” He takes a step forward and peers across the room. He doesn’t want to get too close just in case it blasts him like Scorpius seems to think it might. “Funny writing on the top though. What does this mean? ‘Erised stra ehru oyt-‘”

“Have you ever heard of the Mirror of Erised?” Scorpius is very deliberately not looking at the reflection in the mirror.  

“No,” Albus says. He nudges Scorpius gently, “I’m not an uber geek like you, remember.”

“When you look in it,” Scorpius says, bowing his head and wiping his nose on his sleeve, still desperately trying not to look anywhere near the mirror, “it shows you the deepest desire of your heart.”

Albus’s eyes widen and he looks up at the mirror. “Really? Cool.” He starts walking across the room. “Come on, we should see what-”

Scorpius grabs his wrist and pulls him back. “Don’t. It’s dangerous, it-” His voice is shaking and his eyes are shining with fear. “Men have wasted away in front of it. People have died. The things in it… They’re an idea, not the real thing. You can’t have them. Please, Albus. It would be stupid to look.”

Albus pulls his wrist free and takes Scorpius’s hand instead. “But you must be curious,” he says, searching Scorpius’s face. “We know it’s dangerous so… So we look, and then we leave. We don’t have to stay. We can just walk away and forget. Right?”

Scorpius shakes his head. “I don’t think you can forget…”

Albus sighs and glances round at the mirror. It looks so grand and so beautiful, sitting there in the middle of the classroom. How can a reflection possibly be so bad?

“I’m going to look,” he says, determined. “You don’t have to but… I want to know. We’ll probably never find this room again, Scorpius. This is an opportunity. Isn’t that exciting?”

Scorpius’s eyes dart briefly to the mirror, then he closes them and inhales deeply. “I-I would love to look.”

“Come on then.” Albus squeezes his hand and sets off across the room. After a second Scorpius groans and follows him.

“Fine. But this is going to be an absolute disaster and it will be entirely your fault.”

“Everything we do is my fault,” Albus says with a grin.

They reach the mirror and he gives Scorpius a gentle nudge to put him right in front of it.

“You first, go on.”

“Why me first?” Scorpius complains, still not looking. “You’re the one who wanted to do this. You’re the one who should- oh…” He finally catches sight of himself in the mirror and for a long moment he just looks.

Albus watches his face and it’s like watching him crumble. All the animation fades from his face. His stoic expression fractures into dust. His eyes melt from resolute steel into cold winter rain. Then, very slowly, a smile appears, thinner this time, almost resigned, and a little shaky. His eyes are wet with tears and one dribbles down his face when he tries to blink them away.

He sniffs and wipes his eyes on his sleeve. One trembling hand stretches out almost as if he’s trying to reach for whatever he’s seeing in the mirror. Then quite suddenly he pulls it away and turns his back on the reflection.

“I-I told you,” he says quietly. “I told you we shouldn’t.” He wipes his eyes again, then glances at Albus. “I knew it would be that. I knew it. A-and it’s impossible, so.”

Albus puts a hand on his arm. “What was it? Are you okay? Here, I have some tissues, I can…” He pulls one out and hands it to Scorpius who starts wiping his eyes and blowing his nose. When he’s done he looks up at Albus.

“My mum. Healthy. Alive. And my dad. They were happy. _We_ were happy, the three of us. Like we used to be when I was younger, and-” He shakes his head. “I forgot how beautiful she was. I… I miss her.”

Albus hugs him. He doesn’t know what else to do. There’s nothing to say to that.

Scorpius accepts the hug. “Thank you. I-I’m sorry. I know it’s stupid to cry over a reflection in a mirror. It’s just an impossible dream, but I wish…”

“It’s your heart’s desire,” Albus says.

“Exactly.” Scorpius gives another sniff. “Anyway. You should look too. You were the one who wanted to.” He gently extricates himself from Albus’s grip and steps away so Albus is alone in front of the mirror.

Albus doesn’t look into it. “But what if… What if it’s something stupid? O-or something I can’t have, or…”

“Join the club,” Scorpius says with a sad little smile.

“I-I didn’t mean…” Albus says quickly.

“I know. Go on. We still need to practice Cheering Charms, remember? At least we’ll need them now!” He leans against the frame of the mirror and peers at the reflection, like he’s hoping to see whatever Albus sees.

Albus takes a very deep breath, then he slowly turns around.

He can see himself in the mirror, surrounded by a whole group of people. The first thing he realises is that this is his family. There’s his dad, and his mum, and his brother and sister, and grandparents, and… The second thing he realises is that he is standing at the heart of the group dressed in his green school clothes, and every other family member is in red.

He feels like his heart has turned to lead. He stumbles a step away, shaking his head.

“No. No that doesn’t make any sense. Why would it- Why that? I don’t understand.”

“Albus,” Scorpius says. “What is it? You don’t have to look if-”

He runs a hand through his hair and stares wildly at the image before him, trying to divine some meaning from it. There’s panic rising in him though, his breath is shortening and his hands are shaking.

Does the mirror make mistakes? Can it show the wrong thing? Because all he’s ever wanted to be accepted, and this, him standing out from everyone else in his family, obviously different, the lone Slytherin in a sea of Gryffindors… This is the opposite of that. This is everything he’s always hated.

He hides behind his hands and tries to breathe. Scorpius takes hold of his wrists and gently prises them away from his face.

“Come on,” he says, “we’re leaving.” He tugs Albus forward, away from the mirror, and Albus follows numbly. Except as he steps away he accidentally glances back at his reflection and he notices that in the image his dad has an arm around his shoulders.

He stops dead, frowning. “Wait…”

“Don’t look at it,” Scorpius says.

“But-”

His mum is smiling, he notices. And Rose and James are standing next to each other, both grinning at him, and not like they’re laughing at him either, like they’re just happy he’s there.

Frantically he starts scanning every face in the reflection. No one there seems angry, or unhappy. No one is looking at him mistrustfully the way he’d expect. There’s just smile after smile after smile.

The last face he looks at is his own, and to his amazement he sees that he is grinning. He looks like he cares about the colour of his clothes as little as everyone around him. He isn’t sure he’s ever seen himself so happy before. That smile is radiant, beaming, like the sun coming out. It looks weird on his face. He can’t quite imagine feeling happy enough to smile like that, but the idea of it gives him a warm glow in his heart.

He pulls his hands away from Scorpius and turns right around to face the mirror. For several minutes he stands in silence and just examines the image in front of him, trying to make sense of it.

“It’s me,” he says finally, “a-and my family. And… No one cares that I’m not like them. _I_ don’t care… I’m wearing my Slytherin clothes, and they’re all wearing Gryffindor, and. And it’s okay.” He glances up at Scorpius. “I didn’t know I wanted that…”

“You’re unhappy?” Scorpius asks. “In Slytherin?”

Albus shakes his head. “No, of course not. Being in Gryffindor was horrible. I like it here. I just… Sometimes feel like I don’t fit in. Scorpius, all your family are in Slytherin. But I’m the odd one out, except…” He looks back at the mirror and gestures to his reflection. “Except here.”

As he looks at the reflection his dad lifts a hand to ruffle his hair. Instinctively he ducks out of the way, then realises how stupid he must look and straightens up with a sheepish smile, automatically smoothing his hair down. For a moment more he looks into the mirror, at his family, then he forces himself to turn away.

“So. Cheering Charms?”

Scorpius frowns at him. “Are you okay, Albus?”

Albus nods. “I-I think so. Now I know what I want…” He trails off. “Do you think it could happen? The things in the mirror? Do you think I could… I don’t know, get my family to not care?”

“You already have your mum and dad on your side, don’t you?” Scorpius asks.

Albus thinks about that for a moment before nodding slowly. “Yes, I suppose I do… Yes!” He grins at Scorpius.

Scorpius smiles back. “There you go then. You’re brilliant. They’ll come round eventually.”

“Do you think?”

“I know,” Scorpius says. He walks across to Albus and links arms with him. “Shall we go and practice Cheering Charms now?”

Albus gives the mirror one final glance before nodding decisively. He doesn’t need that image. Scorpius is right, his dad is already on his side. And if he’s good, if he does good things, the rest of the family will follow. The mirror is just a dream, and he wants reality. Maybe it won’t ever happen, but he can try.

“Remind me about the technique for Cheering Charms?” He asks, giving Scorpius’s arm a little squeeze, forcing his feet to carry him away from the mirror, determinedly putting the image aside and trying to flood his brain with magical theory instead.

“Well,” Scorpius says. “The trick is not to overdo it. Be confident, but don’t force it. Oh, and Flitwick told me it helps if you hold your wand a certain way. Look at this.”

Together they turn their backs on the mirror and walk away.


End file.
